It seams that with each new release of AdobeR software, Adobe Bridge gets a face-lift and maybe some new tools. With the release of CreativeR Suite 3, the Adobe Bridge is revisited again. Weather you are a photographer or a digital artist, you will find that the Adobe Bridge application can do a lot to help you organize your ever growing number of images and other assets, import photos from your digital camera and preview multiple images meeting the same criteria. Of course, you have complete control over the layout of the workspace. You can drag and resize the panels as you need and save the custom workspace. The Bridge can be accessed directly or from within any of the individual CS3 programs.

Adobe Bridge Home Page

When you open Adobe Bridge, you will see a nice black colored background and three columns of panels with the center Content Panel containing the Bridge Home page. The page displays links to up-to-date resources general to CS3 such as Upcoming Events, Home Spotlight, Getting Started and More Free Resources. At the top of the Bridge Home page are icons for all the individual programs included in CS3. Each icon will display a new page with a list of resources specific to that individual program including links to video tutorials, news, community and Adobe resources and Adobe Exchange.

Favorites Panel

In the left column is the Favorites Panel which contains icon links to major online and offline resources including Version CueR commands, Adobe Stock Photos and Adobe AcrobatR ConnectTM, where you can start an online meeting. Under the Favorites Panel is the Folders Panel which displays the tree hierarchy for the folders on your hard drive.

Folders Panel

Aside from the top of the left column, the rest of the left and right columns are empty now. So, let's go to a folder on your hard drive that contains images and see how to use Adobe Bridge for stacking related images and filtering images for the ones we need. Click on the Folders Panel tab to open the Folders Panel (under Favorites Panel) and navigate to a folder on your hard drive which contains photos or digital art. Thumbnails for the contents of that folder, including subfolders, will be displayed in the center Content Panel. You have the option to view regular thumbnails or high resolution thumbnails which are created from the image source files. To adjust the size of the thumbnails, use the slider bar at the bottom right of the workspace. Also at the bottom left of the workspace are details of the folder's contents such as the number of images, number of hidden images and number of selected images.